Pain, pressure, burning feeling and swelling in abdomen -- IBS? Any help please.
I know this is a jumbled mess, but I have a couple of questions and would greatly appreciate any help.
I've been experiencing pain, pressure, burning feeling on and off for a year. sometimes the pain is every day for as long as two months. It kind of seems to be related to my period, so I have been diagnosed with possible endometriosis and put on BCP. But a lot of the time the pain is not around my menstrual cycle. Right now I've been having the pain for three days. It's always on my right side. Sometimes in my lower right back, sometimes in my right flank, and sometimes in my right abdomen. It spans from my ovary area, all the way up to under my ribs. It often feels like burning.
Well last night I was in a lot of pain on my right side. I was laying on my left side and I felt a large, hard area on the right, right next to my lower ribs. It was like my intestines were inflamed, or my liver. I switched to my right side and and felt my abdomen on the left for a similar swelling, but there wasn't one. This morning the hard area is gone. The pain is still there, and feels like a burning and swelling in my intestines.
I've seen several doctors, my primary doc seems to think it's all in my head. One doc. told me there was nothing wrong with me and to go home and play with my kids. I have not even been referred to a GI doctor. I went to the OB-GYN and had a pelvic U/S which was normal. After three trips they finally said I may have endo. Sometimes the pain is gone for weeks, then comes back bad as ever. Sometimes it feels like nerves or muscle, sometimes like my ovary. I had a CT scan in the emergency room which was normal, and my bloodwork has been normal for liver function, white and red blood, etc. I have not had a CA 125.
So here are my questions --
First, if this has been going on for a year, on and off, but hasn't progressed any further, would that indicate it's probably not something really serious (i.e. fatal).
And second, does this sound like it could possibly be IBS? I haven't had any GI tests run, but would a CT scan rule out any tumor or those kind of problems?
Thanks for any help.
The Following User Says Thank You to wonderingtoo For This Useful Post: Dpete79563 (04-03-2011)
Re: Pain, pressure, burning feeling and swelling in abdomen -- IBS? Any help please.
Thanks for your response. Trouble with going to another doctor is the type of health coverage I have. All the doctors are linked with computers. So when I try seeing another doctor, they pull up my record and give me the "so you're a hypochondriac" look. They see I went to the doctor 8 times about this last year (this was 4 GP's and 3 OB-GYN's). All the GP's did was refer me back to my regular GP. One of the OB-GYN's referred me back to my regular GYN, who is actually a NP. My NP then referred me to another OB-GYN because there are tests she can't order. That's why so many trips though. Even though I was trying to avoid my regular GP, it just added another trip to my record, and all they did was refer me back to her.
Next doctor I see is going to be a private doc I pay for myself!
Re: Pain, pressure, burning feeling and swelling in abdomen -- IBS? Any help please.
Hello, Wonderingtoo!
Have you made any progress in finding a diagnosis? I just spent a restless night experiencing the symptoms you described, so I'm very curious to find out what you've learned! The symptoms first appeared last December, went away, and showed up again strongly a couple of weeks ago. I know that I was extremely uptight both times, so I wonder what the relationship to stress is!
